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Does anyone remember what Z.O.O. stands for?

Da da da da da da da da da da da da da da…welp…typing the tune to John William’s theme from Jurassic Park fails in comparison to listening to it’s majesty. I felt that I should fit in a reference to Michael Crichton’s wildly popular book since so many people talk about it when they talk about James Patterson’s Zoo.

I must confess, this was my first James Patterson novel. The television series looked interesting and I wanted to read the book before binge watching the show. I ended up binge reading the novel in two sittings. It is quickly paced and not at all dense which lends itself to the sort of bingeing that we do in the Age of Netflix.

I will do my best to leave any comparison to Jurassic Park from this review since I really didn’t find the two at all similar in style or execution. The problem is…Jeff Goldblum reads the part of Jackson Oz in my head…

I’m sorry! That is the last of it, I promise!

But seriously, if you like Michael Crichton you will like James Patterson.

In Zoo, we find that animals across the globe have begun to act strangely. Attacks on humans have increased in frequency. Jackson Oz has noticed and tried to warn people but is seen as a crackpot conspiracy theorist by the scientific and biologist communities. As things start spiraling out of control and the bizarre and gruesome attacks become harder to deny, Oz gets video proof and is able to convince the scientists and the government that there is indeed a problem and they need to figure out what is causing it and how to reverse it.

Okay, here is what I liked about the novel: fast pace, characterization, organic plot.

I really can’t think of much that I didn’t like about the novel. It was a little predictable at times but hey, I’m the type of person that watches each episode of Survivor already knowing who got voted off (Google is just too easy to use…)